Summit Lakes

Summit Lakes

If you like flowers, you should put this hike on your list of must do!
A short hike or a full on camping and multi day backpacking. The access that I will mention is from Medicine Lake on the Maligne valley lake road. Start at the south end of Medicine Lake where there is a parking lot and day use area complete with a trailhead map and outhouse.

Arnica

These winter shots are more for the cross country skiers that frequent the Maligne Valley.

Travel in the winter

An easy and gentle walk on a wide maintained trail is a great way to spend a day. You walk along side a creek and don’t forget to notice the flowers and the trees. From White Lady Slippers to Labrador tea, you’ll find many species that you might have to look up in a flower book. It might have been a late bloom season because there were flowers that should have been gone at time of writing this story. These photos were taken with a digital camera, but if you are going to take flower shots, bring a camera with macro capabilities.

The first lake that you will see is Beaver Lake, where there a boat docked for fishing or just a float on the lake (make arrangements from the fishing shops in Jasper to hire a boat). Summit Lakes does not take long to reach, it is just under 5 kilometres. As I mentioned before you can go for a multi day backpacking trip, by passing through Summit Lakes and head for Jacques Lake about 12 kilometres, where it connects with the South Boundary trail, a whole other story.